Analisis Wacana Kritis Norman Fairclough terhadap Komunikasi Politik Presiden dalam Program YouTube Episode "Prabowo Menjawab"

Abstract

This study analyzes the discourse construction, ideology, and power relations embedded in President Prabowo Subianto’s communication in the YouTube interview program Presiden Prabowo Menjawab using Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Employing a qualitative approach, the research applies Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework comprising text, discursive practice, and social practice. The primary data consist of the full-version interview uploaded on Najwa Shihab’s official YouTube channel on 7 April 2025, featuring seven senior editors from major Indonesian media. Data were collected through documentation, verbatim transcription, systematic nonverbal observation, and literature review, then analyzed through description, interpretation, and explanation. The findings reveal that, at the textual level, President Prabowo constructs a positive self-representation through action-oriented verbs, precise numerical data, strategic pronoun shifts, and rhetorical devices. At the discursive practice level, the interview adopts an unconventional multi-journalist format and is widely disseminated through YouTube, positioning participating media as co-producers of presidential discourse. At the social practice level, four ideological patterns—developmentalist executive ideology, civil–military continuity, personalization of power, and staged openness—work together to strengthen presidential legitimacy through charismatic, traditional-historical, and legal-rational authority while reinforcing media hegemony. The study contributes the concept of staged openness to political communication studies and highlights the importance of distinguishing symbolic openness from substantive accountability in presidential communication.